Pat Hurst shot a 4-under 68 on Sunday to beat top-ranked Lorena Ochoa and Yani Tseng by one stroke at the MasterCard Classic.
Hurst sank a long putt on the 18th green at the tough BosqueReal Country Club to finish at 10-under 206. No. 1 ranked Ochoa (69) had three bogeys and six birdies, while Tseng (70) had three bogeys and five birdies.
“The 17th and 18th coming in was very exciting,” Hurst said. “I just tried not to get ahead of myself out there, and we made it happen.”
PHOTO: AP
Tseng had led until the last hole.
“I just feel really sad,” she said, wiping away tears. “I just don’t know what to say.”
Ochoa was also disappointed, saying she had a “complicated day” and that her frustration at not being able to beat this course got the best of her.
The steep and scrubby course outside Mexico City has always been tough for Ochoa. She has yet to win the Mastercard Classic in five attempts. Last year she opened ended up tying for eighth.
Ochoa still has two other chances for victory on her home turf this year. She will be back in Mexico next month for the Corona Championship in Morelia. The Lorena Ochoa Invitational is in November in Guadalajara, Ochoa’s hometown.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS